Hidden Oaks Point is a long flat point with dry prairie at the southern end, and a small mesic remnant at the north end.  When we first explored it in 2000, the area between these two prairies had grown into a thick brushy woods with old, open-grown oaks around the edges.

This is the story of the project we’ve been working on to open up the woods between the prairies – to bring it back to being savanna.  (Hover over the photos to see dates when they were taken.)

This is an early photo of the mesic remnant – which we call Hidden Oaks Meadow – surrounded by trees and thick brush.

This is the dry prairie on the point.

I don’t have any good photos of the thick woods – it was so thick that we didn’t take any pictures looking into it.  But this one shows our mowed path between the point and Hidden Oaks Meadow – with woods on both sides.

The first area we worked on is just north of the dry prairie point.  The flat top had some smaller oaks, birches, aspens, elms, and red maples.  This photo was taken from the dry prairie point looking into the woods, before we started work.

This is the same view after cutting and removing brush and some of the small trees.

Since then most of the elms have died, and we’ve mowed once a year under the remaining trees.  Here’s a more recent photo.

This is the same area, looking from the north, toward the point, before we started clearing.

This was taken right after we finished clearing.

And a recent photo of that area.

Between this savanna area and Hidden Oaks Meadow was a thick grove of aspen and birch.  I started girdling those trees in 2005.

This is looking south from Hidden Oaks Meadow, toward the point – showing newly girdled trees.

A year later, the trees had started to die, but with more sun getting in, more brush was growing up underneath them.

Looking the other direction at the dying trees.

A few years later there were still lots of standing dead trees, and we were getting impatient to start clearing.  We decided to see if Mike could push them over with the tractor.  It didn’t work – they didn’t fall easily, and if they did, it was hard to predict where they would fall.  We decided to leave them until they fell down on their own.

Finally there were enough trees down that we thought we could get the tractor in to help us clear.  This is the way it looked before we started.

In process – with piles of logs and brush.   Mike alternated cutting with a chain saw and a weed whacker with a saw blade.  I made piles.  Later Mike came in with the tractor and moved the piles to a large pile back in the woods.

Finished.  There’s still more to do, but more trees have to fall down first.

Looking at that same area the next summer.  We’ll keep mowing once a year for a few years to keep the brush from coming back.

The third area we’ve worked on is Hidden Oaks Meadow.  We wanted to open up the connection between it and the planted prairie (the Narrows Prairie) just to the north.  And we decided to remove some of the old apple trees – one large one in the meadow itself, and several smaller ones around the edges.

This is looking north into Hidden Oaks Meadow, just before we started work (not quite showing the apple trees).

This is from a bit further back – after cutting down the line of brush between the meadow and the planted prairie, but before cutting the apple trees.

After cutting biggest of the apple trees, with the piles we made.

After all the apple trees had been cut, and the logs hauled away.

This is looking the other way – from the Narrows Prairie south, through Hidden Oaks Meadow toward the point – before we started.

The same view after we’d finished clearing.